Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

The image of impoverished writers, starving for their art
and living in garrets, predated the era of Paris as a city of garrets tucked under mansard
roofs. Garrets were attic living spaces - hot in summer, cold in winter - fit
quarters only for servants or the poorer sort of tenants. The British artist
William Hogarth, renowned satirist, painted The Distrest Poet in 1736 as an
image of a writer awash in poverty - he sits at his garret desk, pen in hand,
while his wife is darning clothes and a milkmaid stands in the doorway,
demanding payment of debts. [An observation: When Hogarth published and sold
engravings of the image, the black-and-white prints were a mirror image of the
original oil painting, so that the distressed poet switched from being right
handed to left handed.]

As to what is and why called 'mansard,' the style originated with a French architect, Francois Mansart (1598-1666). He was an builder for the wealthy aristocracy, and even for them a tribulation, as he at times changed his plans in mid-construction and insisted the building be torn down and started over again. He fell out of favor with the royal court and others when the foundation for one of his buildings cost more than his original estimate for the entire project.

The Paris
of mansard-roofed buildings (and garrets) dates to what is referred to as the "Second Empire Style" of French
architecture (1855-1885). Emperor Napoleon
III ordered a reconstruction of Paris that swept
away the medieval street plan of Paris,
resulting in the elegant city we are familiar with today. Boulevards were lined
with stone-faced, five-story buildings capped by a mansard roof. This top space
was in effect a sixth floor walk-up (elevators not yet invented).

Mansard roof design calls for a nearly vertical roof that
slants in on all sides. At a height similar to a floor of the building all
sides of the roof continue at a very shallow upward slant. The steep part of the roof is
punctuated by dormers. The net effect is a habitable living space under the
roof rather than an additional floor of the building. Decorative details are
ornate rather than spare.

The Lorenzo Maynard mansion on Dartmouth Street. Built 1870s.

In the U.S.,
Second Empire Style houses and public buildings came into vogue during the time
of post-Civil War prosperity, especially
among the wealthy merchant class. Houses had two or three floors capped by a
mansard roof. These houses typically had extensive porches, sometimes
a tower, and a carriage house, also with a mansard roof. In Maynard, the best
existing example is Lorenzo Maynard's mansion, at 7-9 Dartmouth Road. It still has the original
stained glass windows. The modest house to the west was Lorenzo's carriage
house. There are two more on Dartmouth
- the next house over (#13) and an 1960s-built apartment complex at the site of
what had been Amory Maynard's even larger mansard roofed mansion.

Four other 1870s mansard-roofed houses grace Maynard. Three
are on Maple Street. One has a similarly roofed carriage house. The largest of the three is now
four apartments, but once was the dwelling of the Case family, owner of W.B.
Case & Sons, Dry Goods - now the Outdoor Store. The last is a house just
west of ArtSpace, on Summer Street.

Gambrel roof house (internet photo)

A mansard roof is related but not the same thing as a gambrel roof. The
latter are common in Maynard. Gambrels are seen more often on rectangular
buildings which have only one story below the roof. The shorter sides rise
straight up from ground to peak, while the roof on the long sides starts steep,
often punctuated by windowed dormers, then continues with a less slanted roof
to the roof beam. The architectural style is called Dutch Colonial. Many of the
homes in the part of town with streets named after Presidents have gambrel
roofs.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Women shopping at an herb and spice store,
Aleppo,Syria, 2007. Click on photos to enlarge.

Traditional Arabic Medicine (TAM) is far less well-known in
the U.S.
compared to other “traditional,” i.e., non-Western medical practices such as traditional
Chinese medicine or traditional Indian (Ayurvedic or Unani) medicine. Per the
World Health Organization, “Traditional medicine refers to health practices,
approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant-, animal- and
mineral-based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques, and exercises
applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses
or maintain well-being.”

Much of the roots of Traditional Arabic Medicine stem from
the Alexandrian conquests and the subsequent hundreds of years of rule by Greek
colonists in the Hellenistic States, stretching from what is now Egypt to the western edges of what is now India. The
medical works of Hippocrates and Galen laid the foundations for medical
practice in the Middle East. Greek-derived
medicine survived the Roman conquests and was later formalized by the
translations of Greek texts into Arabic in the 8th century A.D. Major Ayurvedic
texts were also being translated into Arabic at the same time, and Ayurvedic
practices were melded into Arabic medicine

Advances in medicine during the Abbasid Caliphate (8th to 13th centuries)
included the establishment of hospitals, surgical methods, medical
encyclopedias, medical schools and the standardization of botanical
preparations. The western reaches of the Islamic empire reached into what is
now Spain, with centers of
learning in Cordoba and Granada. Toward the end of the 12th century,
translations from Arabic to Latin of such works as the Canon of Medicine and
the Comprehensive Book on Medicine laid the foundation for the development of
“Western” medicine in Europe.

As an example of how one of these might show up as a modern dietary supplement
ingredient, frankincense (Boswellia
serrata) contains various boswellic acids, which can be concentrated into a
Boswellia extract. Boswellic acids have been shown to inhibit the inflammation
pathway. In clinical trials, Boswellia extracts have demonstrated promising
effects in osteoarthritis, colitis and asthma.

In many cultures, traditional medicines include animal
parts in addition to plants. This shop has starfish and
turtle shells in addition to herbs, spices and food.

The 21st century future for TAM is not as strong as it is
for traditional Indian or Chinese medicine. A 2006 visit to Damascus
and Aleppo
found herb-selling traditional Arab pharmacies in the souks, but in the suburbs
there were cars double-parked in front of modern pharmacies where consumers
raced in to buy glucosamine, ginkgo and other non-indigenous complementary and
alternative medicines.

A survey of Arab practitioners in the Middle Eastern region provides evidence
that TAM does not have this forward-looking momentum. Practitioners considered
to be knowledgeable in their trade inherited the practice from their fathers or
male relatives, or learned it as an apprentice. The survey's authors mentioned that
the number of practitioners they were able to locate was fewer than reported in
earlier surveys. There was limited exchange of information among healers, and
no systematic instruction of the next generation of healers. The healers either
sourced their herbs from the wild - limiting them to what grew locally - or
purchased products from traditional Arab pharmacies. On average, each healer
used only 22 botanical products in their practice - far fewer than the 200-300
that ethnobiologists had identified as still in common use. On the bright side,
there are attempts to establish re­search/teaching centers, including gardens
for medicinal plants.

To remain vibrant, any traditional medicine requires schools to continue to
graduate practitioners, agreed upon definitions for botanical materials, stable
sources of those plants and a population of consumers seeking traditional
treatments. Given the current world dominance of “Western” medicine, advocates
of traditional medicine may also try to apply evidence-based research methods
to traditional practices. This typically involves identification of the active
compounds in plant extracts, followed by evaluation through human studies. This
approach can be conducted at regional universities. Or students from the region
who have moved to other countries to complete their advanced education could
conduct research there on treatments they were familiar with from childhood.

Black Seed (Nigella
sativa) is one of the most commonly used botanical products throughout the Middle East. It is also an example of “Prophetic
Medicine” - referring to health and disease statements found in the Holy Koran
and in the Hadith - writings, sayings and traditions from Mohammad, the Prophet
of Islam. An English translation of one statement: “There is healing in black
seed for all ailments, except death.” Usage is oral consumption of the crushed
seeds, sometimes mixed with foods (especially honey), or else oil extracted
from the seeds. Traditional uses include treating asthma, allergies, bronchitis,
gastro-intestinal problems, to increase milk production in nursing mothers, and
others. Placebo-controlled human studies suggest that Nigella extracts might lower
blood pressure, cholesterol and fasting glucose.

And because what's old is new again, local pharmacies carry dietary supplements containing ingredients such as chamomile,
cinnamon, fenugreek, frankincense, garlic, ginger, turmeric...

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Before refrigeration, before commercial development of the
ice business, before canned goods, salting and/or drying, with or without smoke,
were the major means of preserving meat. The idea was to make the food
inhospitable to bacteria and mold, yet still edible. Hog killing time was in the
fall. Yield included hams, bacon, sausage and a barrel of pork meat submerged
in strong brine. What we call salt pork now is a small fraction of what went
into a barrel back then. With careful planning the brined meat would last a
family through the winter. In a novel set in colonial times, James Fenimore
Cooper wrote: "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the
mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel."

Late fall, after the first frosts, was hog killing time for
a few reasons. Colder weather meant less of a problem with flies and risk of
rot while the meat was being processed. Piglets from the spring's litter would
have become hogs weighing 150 to 200 pounds. There was no reason to keep/feed
hogs over the winter (except for the breeders, which reached an adult weight of
400 to 600 pounds, and ate 6,000 calories a day). Meat was packed in salt and
let sit for weeks, with holes in the bottom of the basin for water to drip out.
From here, some went into the smoke house for weeks of drying, while other cuts
went into a barrel of brine. Either way, non-refrigerated storage was good for
months and more. In Italy,
air-dried Prosciutto hams are aged 14-30 months before going to market.

Salt beef was another food common to the era before
refrigeration, especially aboard sailing ships, as barrels of this commodity
would keep for months. Nowadays we are reduced to corned beef and pastrami, the
key difference between the two being that the latter is dried and smoked in
between the initial brining and the end-stage cooking. Much of the land in Ireland was
given over to cattle for the British Navy and merchant fleets, leaving the
native Irish to the cities, and potatoes. The Irish Potato Famine of the late
1840s, caused by a potato wasting disease, forced many to emigrate to the Americas,
locally to work in factories.

Salt cod. Click on photo to enlarge. (Internet download)

Salt cod is third example of a once common New
England food, now less so. In Catholic neighborhoods, especially,
markets would have these air-dried, salted, unrefrigerated fillets on display.
The buyer would soak the cod in fresh water for at least 24 hours, changing the
water several times, in order to rehydrate, and remove most of the salt. In Norway there
used to be five different grades of salt cod: superior extra, superior,
imperial, universal and popular. Top quality came from the fish being caught on
a fishing line, bled while still alive, beheaded, gutted and immediately salted.
This versus netted - which probably meant the fish was dead a while before
being beheaded and gutted - then frozen on the ship, then thawed, salted and
dried once ashore.

While all Catholics were eating salt cod during Lent, the
local Finnish population had started eating lipeäkala (lutefisk, i.e., 'lye fish') before
Christmas. Same salt cod, but after the rehydrating water soak, soaked a couple
of days in a strong lye solution, them more days of water soaking to remove
most of the lye. First-timers describe is as either soapy tasting fish or fishy
tasting soap. Either way, a strong odor and an acquired taste.

'Pork barrel politics' is a metaphor for the
appropriation of federal or state government spending for projects
designed to bring money to a representative's home district. Construction,
defense spending, and agricultural subsidies are the most commonly cited
examples. A famous Massachusetts example was
the Big Dig, a multi-billion dollar, federally funded, traffic improvement
project shepherded through Congress by Thomas 'Tip' O'Neill, Jr., then
representing Boston
and serving as Speaker of House of Representatives. Closer to home we have the
Assabet River Rail Trail, primarily funded by the Federal Highway
Administration from the federal fuel tax. Your (and other people's) tax dollars
at work.

"Bottom of the barrel" has other origins. When wine is stored in barrels, solid materials composed of grape skin fragments, dead yeast cells, tartaric acid crystals and precipitating tannins (the last from the grapes and also the wood of the barrel) settle to the bottom and are referred to as dregs or lees. Modern-day bottled wines are filtered, so there is much less of this, and thus less need for decanters, but even then there can be some post-filtering precipitates. Back in the era of unfiltered wine, the well-off got the good stuff and the poorer class of people drank wine from the bottom of the barrel. Present day usage means something being of poor quality. There is a belief that beer drawn from a fermentation tank is progressively darker toward the bottom. Not true.